Tian Zhaowu, former president of Xiamen University, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and one of the founders of modern electrochemistry in mainland China, passed away at the age of 98
"Cross-border academicians" promoted the development of the new energy vehicle industry more than 20 years ago
His last research was on new "supercapacitors"
She Zheng
Tian Zhaowu (1927-2024) is a famous physical chemist and educator, one of the founders of modern electrochemistry in mainland China, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, winner of the National May Day Labor Medal, national outstanding educator, former president of Xiamen University, and professor of the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of Xiamen University.
Tian Zhaowu when he was young.
Tian Zhaowu devoted himself to scientific research in the laboratory.
Since 1978, Tian Zhaowu has been exploring the use of computers in electrochemistry.
Xiamen University will hold a farewell ceremony today to bid farewell to their old president, Tian Zhaowu, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who is a well-known physical chemist and educator and one of the founders of modern electrochemistry in mainland China.
Tian Zhaowu was born on June 28, 1927 and died in Xiamen at 22:50 on October 1, 2024, at the age of 98.
He was the president of the university and became an academician at the age of 53, but Tian Zhaowu acted unusually low-key, and he actually had a wonderful and extraordinary life: he was a "native" academician, insisted on innovation, and achieved a series of original and original achievements; He is a cross-border expert - his main research field is physical chemistry, intersecting multiple disciplines such as physics, mathematics, computational science, mechanics and life sciences; He is also a skilled academician, and has developed a series of experimental instruments by himself.
Tian Zhaowu and his wife have a son and a daughter, and their son Tian Zhongqun is also an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Text/She Zheng Photo/School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University
As a top student
At the age of 18, he was sent to the Department of Chemistry of Xiamen University
46 years ago, I taught myself how to write software on my computer
Tian Zhaowu was born in a family of poets and calligraphers in Fuzhou, his father was a scholar, and his mother refused to bind her feet since she was a child, and she disguised herself as a man to go to private school.
In 1945, 18-year-old scholar Tian Zhaowu was sent to the Department of Chemistry of Xiamen University. At Xiamen University, Tian Zhaowu, a first-year freshman, made a sensation - he scored an average score of 91 in each course in his first academic year, which attracted the attention of Lu Jiaxi, then dean of the School of Science and head of the Department of Chemistry at Xiamen University, and included him in the list of key training. Lu Jiaxi gave Tian Zhaowu a list of courses other than chemistry, which laid a solid foundation for Tian Zhaowu's future scientific research. Lu Jiaxi later became president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
In Tian Zhaowu's 98 years of life, diligence and talent have always allowed him to see further. In 1978, Tian Zhaowu visited United Kingdom and bought back a personal computer for 400 pounds, which was one of the first mass-produced home computers in the world, so some people believe that this was the first personal computer introduced in the mainland. Tian Zhaowu taught himself computers, wrote various software by himself, and explored the application of computers in electrochemical research.
More than 20 years ago, the problem of urban congestion and energy consumption began to emerge, Tian Zhaowu proposed the development of electric buses in the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and then urged the "new energy vehicle industry" to be included in the national "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" seven strategic emerging industries. For the last 20 years, Tian Zhaowu has been committed to the research of new "supercapacitors", which can be used for electrochemical energy storage devices for electric vehicles.
As a scientist
The source of innovation comes from interdisciplinarity
A series of original and original achievements have been obtained
Tian Zhaowu is engaged in electrochemistry research and is considered one of the founders of modern electrochemistry in China. Electrochemistry is often thought to have originated in 1791 when an Italy scientist discovered the phenomenon of "animal electricity" in which scalpels or metal can make frog leg muscles constrict. In the vernacular, electrochemistry helps to solve the problems faced by human beings in energy, transportation, materials, environmental protection, etc.
However, Tian Zhaowu is not an electrochemical "background". After graduating from Xiamen University, Tian Zhaowu stayed on to teach and became a teaching assistant to Lu Jiaxi, who devoted himself to the study of the structure of matter and quantum. The young Tian Zhaowu noticed the research on "electrode process dynamics" that was emerging in the world at that time, and of course, he also understood that it was difficult to enter the field of electrode process dynamics, which was highly marginal and involved many disciplines. Despite this, Tian Zhaowu believes that electrochemistry is a "bonanza" for scientific research, so he decided to go ahead.
Lu Jiaxi later said that when I found out that Tian Zhaowu was a talent, he had already "parted ways" with me.
In 1980, he was elected as a member (academician) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is a "native" academician – he has never studied abroad, but his peers say that China's pivotal position in the international electrochemical field is closely related to Tian Zhaowu.
Now it seems that innovation is the "weapon" of this academician. Tian Zhaowu's source of innovation comes from interdisciplinarity. Recognized in the industry, Tian Zhaowu is an advocate and practitioner of scientific source innovation and interdisciplinarity, and has made a series of original and significant achievements in electrode process kinetics, electrochemistry, electrochemical micromachining technology, etc.
Tian Zhaowu often said: "I like science, and the charm of science is innovation." He once said that when you are faced with a choice, you should see what problems still exist in the development of the discipline and in which fields you can open up new directions - in scientific research, new things are more vital and more worthy of exploration and research.
As a teacher
His syllabus "Talking"
The obscure lessons were taught by him in a simple way
From 1982 to 1989, Tian Zhaowu served as the president of Xiamen University. At the 70th anniversary meeting of Tian Zhaowu's teaching, Zhu Chongshi, the former president of Xiamen University, revealed that the three-semester system of Xiamen University was implemented by Mr. Tian when he was the president. In the extra semester of the "three semesters", the school offers a large number of elective courses and invites famous experts to give lectures to students, which is conducive to students to broaden their knowledge and master the most advanced knowledge.
Tian Zhaowu's voice is as loud as a bell, but as a good teacher who "can speak in the syllabus", he does not rely on his voice.
In 1953, Tian Zhaowu, who had just been promoted to lecturer, was entrusted by Lu Jiaxi with the important task of teaching the course "Physical Chemistry". "Physical Chemistry" was one of the most difficult courses recognized by teachers and students as having a wide variety of contents and complex concepts. However, Tian Zhaowu taught with great vigor - clear diagrams, logical and rigorous thinking and analysis questions, supplemented by rigorous experiments, concretizing obscure concepts and clarifying complex content, which won praise among students.
The reason why the class is so vivid and brilliant is not only because of Tian Zhaowu's solid theoretical foundation, but more importantly, his dedication to teaching. His colleague said that he first fully absorbed and digested the teaching content, and then organized and improved it in combination with the students' cognitive situation and scientific research results, and gradually formed his own teaching system through continuous exploration.
In 1977, entrusted by the state, Xiamen University held the first "Electrochemical Research Methods Short Course" in China, and Tian Zhaowu taught "Electrochemical Research Methods". Since then, China's electrochemical industry has sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, and many young people who participated in the training have later become discipline leaders in their units, and this short course has also been known as "China Electrochemistry Whampoa Military Academy". Tian Zhaowu's "Electrochemical Research Methods" is considered to be one of the classic works of electrochemical science in China.
Tian Zhaowu believes that meticulous teaching is the best way to improve -- the knowledge and perception accumulated in preparing and lecturing can play a great role in future scientific research, which is why he insists that teachers should strive to teach one or two basic courses.
However, compared with the class, Tian Zhaowu in life is more like a lone ranger, and when he graduated from middle school, his classmates commented that "no one seems to know him, he is always silent". This personality was retained later. His colleague once revealed: Since 2009, every year before the Spring Festival, Tian Zhaowu has to go to the bank opposite the school to withdraw some money, and entrust the college to give red envelopes to the college's students who are from poor families but have excellent character and learning, and he is not allowed to say who gave it.
Yesterday, Cai Wanghuai, former chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, saw off his old friend with a sentence: Most people say that intelligence makes a great scientist, but they are wrong, it is character.
In fact, in 1945, someone "predicted" Tian Zhaowu's success, and his classmates wrote in their graduation evaluation: He always moved forward on the road to success, sometimes encountered setbacks, and quickly eliminated, it is conceivable that he is an extraordinary person.
When Tian Zhaowu finished his 98-year-old life, he was indeed an extraordinary person and lived an extraordinary life.
Multi-faceted academician
self-study
Tian Zhaowu's source of innovation relies on self-study in large part of his life, and he believes that scientific research requires not only a keen sense of smell, but also extraordinary self-learning ability.
After the fifties of the twentieth century, electronics developed from electron tubes to transistors, integrated circuits and large-scale integrated circuits.
After becoming an academician himself, Tanaka recalled an incident: When he was in the second year of high school, he asked his father with an unsolvable math problem, but his father was unhappy and asked, "Can't you solve it on your own?"
Tanaka said that since then, he has never asked his father for any exercises. However, many years later, Tanaka Qun understands his father, which is actually his father's nature - Tian Zhaowu has always believed that everything must be solved by himself.
Cross-border
He is considered a master of cross-border research, and his main research areas involve physical chemistry, intersecting various disciplines such as physics, mathematics, computational science, mechanics and life sciences. Tian Zhaowu believes that intersectionality is of positive significance for scientific research, and a seemingly insignificant knowledge point in one field may be the breakthrough point for a key problem in another field. In this way, the problem will not be limited to a fixed field, and the so-called innovation will come from this.
In 2009, he initiated and donated to the establishment of the "Tian Zhaowu Interdisciplinary Award Fund" of Xiamen University to encourage scientific research innovation and interdisciplinary research.
Dexterity
Not only is the research unique, but the experimental instruments that Tian Zhaowulian researched are also independently developed, which is considered to be extremely difficult - the equipment in the field of electrochemistry requires high precision, and the experimental conditions must be stable.
This is a skillful academician. One night more than half a century ago, the black-and-white feature film "Heroic Children" was screened in the cafeteria of the Department of Chemistry of Xiamen University, and Tian Zhaowu watched the film with his heart - this film was not connected to the mains, and the zinc-air battery developed by Tian Zhaowu and his colleagues was used throughout the screening. At that time, the research and development of zinc-air batteries sent "timely rain" to remote mountainous areas and military camp outposts, which was a meaningful achievement for national construction.
Tian Zhaowu is a pioneer in the mainland's independent research and development of scientific instruments. In 1973, Tian Zhaowu, who was involved in physics, mathematics, computer science, microsystem science and other fields through self-study, began to lead the scientific research team to develop the "electrochemical comprehensive tester". As the chief designer of the instrument, Tian Zhaowu forgot to sleep and eat, and almost soaked in the laboratory from morning to night. Mrs. Tian often had to send her children to the laboratory to urge him to come home for dinner.
In 1974, the "electrochemical comprehensive tester" was successfully developed, which is the first large-scale, comprehensive, integrated circuit electrochemical testing instrument in the mainland, the instrument parts are all made of domestic materials, and its main functions and some technical indicators have even reached the international advanced level. Tian Zhaowu delivered it to the factory free of charge, mass-produced hundreds of units, and provided them to the national electrochemical counterparts. In 1978, the instrument won the National Science Congress Award.
Tian Zhaowu believes that in addition to theoretical and applied research, there should also be a machine developed by yourself, "if the principles of the machine are designed by yourself, then you will definitely do better research work than others." This is Tian Zhaowu's "troika" scientific research theory.
click
He loves to learn
It has a nickname "Chung Tang Kueh"
Tian Zhaowu was a celebrity when he was in middle school - he once stayed up all night exploring the solution method of the fifth equation, so his classmates gave him the nickname "Dangtang Kueh", which means that he worked hard and concentrated like a farmer making sugar cake.
He plays billiards
Served as Ding Junhui's "fan"
Work and scientific research are not Tian Zhaowu's only hobbies, he likes billiards, Go, singing, photography, etc., among them, the hobbies of Go and snooker billiards have accompanied him for more than half a century.
The academician is a lover of snooker, and he adheres to this hobby almost rain or shine. When snooker billiards "prodigy" Ding Junhui arrived at Xiamen University, Tian Zhaowu asked him for a few tricks. Tian Zhaowu's student once recalled that after the teacher came back, he said happily: "I became a 'fan' of Ding Junhui today."